Day 3: Canal Tour

Last night I went out to Rembrandtsplein for drinks with some of the guys from the group. It was a fun time walking around, sticking our heads into some of the bars in that neighborhood and having some time to bond. The lesson of last night's outing was that dancing is not exactly Europe's thing. I've never seen so much awkward shuffling in one place in my life! We got in at about 3:30am local time. (That's nothing to the locals, who start their night around midnight or 1am, then stay out until the sun comes up!)

On the morning of our third day (today), the group went to a flea market near Waterlooplein. We were free to browse and shop as we pleased, but once again I didn't find anything that really piqued my interest. I think we'll be going back there later this week for a class assignment.

I had lunch with Erin, Melissa and Kriss from the group at a Tony's New York Bagel shop. That's right. We came 3,800 miles to eat New York City bagels.

All kidding aside, I had a fantastic chicken avocado sandwich on an everything bagel. Props to Erin for making the executive decision on eating there.

Getting back from lunch was an adventure. We got on the right tram, but found ourselves headed in the wrong direction! We got kicked off at Centraal Station, which is the end of the line for most of the city's public transportation. Erin, Melissa, Kriss, and I had to wait several minutes for the next tram, doing our best to keep our heads since we thought we might be late for meeting the group for our canal tour. We made it just in time, though!

The canal tour was nice, but could've used some improvement. Our boat navigated several canals, a river, and a bay while a vocal narration played intermittently through headphones. So it's like, you're listening to this narration talking about some of the city's history, and then it'll stop for ten minutes. Of course everyone takes the earphones off in that time and shifts their focus (if it wasn't there already) on socializing and snapping pictures. The windows on the boat weren't exactly conducive to great angles for photos, but I still managed to get a few good shots.

We've been free since then, and should be until class on Monday morning. I went back to the brewery in the windmill a few blocks down the street with some of the guys this afternoon. Local, craft beer at excellent prices? Can't beat that.